From the airline standpoint, sacks of potatoes make better than average passengers- no complaints, no lawsuits, no lost baggage. If the wifi signal varies throughout the airplane, the could lead to a new tariff vector- in addition to surcharges for more legroom, you can add wifi signal strength. And then, do Idaho spuds make better/worse passengers than Yukon Gold?

When Boeing Co. needed to test out in-flight wireless signals on full planes, they couldn't ask humans to sit motionless for days at a time while they conducted experiments. So they found an unusual substitute for people: the potato. Turns out that human beings have many more similarities to potatoes than you'd think.